COVID Rears Its Ugly Head

Someone that we know down here in Mexico became ill on Tuesday with a cough and bad sore throat.  He went to the doctor and was given a COVID test.  He tested positive.  Alejandro and I had seen him just the day before he got sick.  Obviously, when we found out, we were concerned that we would come down with it.  Every time that I had a cough or a tickle in my throat, I would start worrying that I had caught it.

We both felt fine the next day, but it was too soon to know whether or not the virus was incubating within us.  Alejandro's doctor recommended a medication called Adimod which is supposed to boost the immune system.  So on Wednesday I went to the pharmacy (wearing a mask for the first time in ages) and bought a box.  I also bought several at-home COVID tests.

On Wednesday evening, even though it was perhaps too soon to detect the virus, I took one of the tests.  I tested negative.

By Friday morning we were still feeling OK.  Both Alejandro and I took the test again and we were both negative.  At this point, I think we are out of the woods, although I plan on taking another test on Sunday.  I guess that our vaccines are still working, or else we didn't have enough close contact with the person who got sick.  (By the way, he is already feeling much better.)   

Please, Bloom!

 I have written many times about my orchid plant.  Although it looks very healthy and has sprouted new leaves and air roots, after well over a year it has not rebloomed.  For some time I have been giving it a special orchid fertilizer that I bought that is supposed to promote flowering... a few drops in its water each week.  But nothing.

Now, I have been taking further measures.  I read that in order to keep the air around the plant more humid, the orchid should be set on a tray filled with pebbles and water.  So, I have put pebbles and water in the plate under the plant.  However, I didn't want it to be sitting in water... root rot the articles on the internet warn!  I set the pot in the plastic bottom from a package of cherry tomatoes.  It fits perfectly.

One fellow at the orchid show that we attended a couple weeks ago said that orchids like cooler temperatures at night.  So, I have been setting the plant out on the enclosed balcony at night.  I open one of the windows, but not the window by the orchid.  They don't like drafts.  Even during the hot months of spring, the nighttime temperatures in Mexico City get down into the upper 50s F.  I figure that the balcony is probably getting down to about 60 degrees, which, according to several articles, is a temperature that they like at night.  Then, in the morning I take it back to the living room by the window with the southeastern exposure.  With the sheer drapes, there it gets plenty of bright but indirect sunlight.

I don't know what else I can do... perhaps talk to it.  "Please, bloom.  Pretty please."

The Protest Continues

Several days ago, I wrote about the teachers' protest on the Zócalo.  That protest continues and is growing.  This is a photo I took from "Webcams de México" this afternoon.  The encampment covers the entire plaza, which is one of the largest in the world (surpassed only by Red Square in Moscow and Tiananmen Square in Beijing). 

Last weekend the tent city overflowed onto a couple of streets near the Zócalo.  Now, according to the newspaper, it is taking over more streets.

Traffic blockades also continue.  When I took the Metrobus today, the bus only went as far as the Insurgentes traffic circle, so I assume that the intersection of Insurgentes Avenue and Paseo de la Reforma was blocked once again.  I got off the subway to find that teachers had blockaded busy Chapultepec Avenue near Balderas Avenue.

According to the newspaper, at 5:00 this morning the teachers surrounded the National Palace and have blocked access to the building.  Workers could not enter, nor could reporters attend the President's daily press conference.  I wonder if the President is stuck in her Palace, unable to leave?  

More Apartments

Along Insurgentes Avenue, in the San Rafael neighborhood not far from the Monument to the Mexican Revolution, is a building which was structurally damaged in the earthquake of 2017 and which has stood vacant since then.

I always take note of this building when passing by on the Metrobus because on the ground level there was a men's clothing store called "Dover".  (You can still see one of the signs.)  For many years, Alejandro's favorite uncle used to work as a tailor in that store.  Fortunately, he retired before the earthquake devastated his place of employment.

Now, many years later, the structure is covered with large banners advertising another apartment building project.  I assume that the damaged building will be torn down and a new one constructed on the site.

The location is in a so-so neighborhood not far from a couple of areas known for prostitution.  But this stretch of Insurgentes is experiencing gentrification.  This is just the latest of several new high-rise apartment buildings which are in various stages of construction or planning. 

Climbing Pyramids

Climbing the pyramids of Mexico's archaeological sites is an experience that has become prohibited at more and more locations.

In 2006 the famous Mayan Pyramid of Kukulkán at Chichén Itzá was closed to climbing.

Supposedly the closure came after a woman fell to her death while descending the pyramid, a story which I have never been able to confirm.  With the enormous number of visitors coming to the archaeological site, it was necessary to close the pyramid to preserve the structure.  I visited Chichén Itzá three times.  The first two times I was able to ascend to the top and even climb a staircase within the pyramid that was part of an earlier temple.  On my third trip there everything was closed to climbing.

The Pyramid of the Magician, at the Mayan site of Uxmal was also closed to climbers.

The staircase of this pyramid is especially steep and scary... yet I climbed it twice, the second time with a group of my students.  Cracks were discovered on the structure following Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and archaeologists have worked to stabilize the pyramid.

A third Mayan pyramid closed to climbing was the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque.

When I first visited Palenque you were not only allowed to climb the pyramid, but you could descend a staircase within it that led to the burial chamber of King Pakal... a fascinating experience.  But on my second trip there, the pyramid was off limits.

Teotihuacan, about 30 miles north of Mexico City, is one of the largest archaeological sites in Mexico.  I have lost track of how many times I have climbed the massive Pyramid of the Sun.

You could also climb the Pyramid of the Moon, although you could only go up to the first level since the staircase was not completely restored.

All that changed in 2020 during the pandemic.  The dense crowds of people ascending and descending the steps were deemed a health hazard.  Even after the pandemic, the pyramids remained closed to insure their preservation.

The reason why I am bringing this up is because of an article I read the other day.  As of May 19th (two days ago), the National Institute of Archaeology and History reopened the Pyramid of the Moon to climbing up to the first level.  I'm not sure that the reopening is for the best of reasons.  The Institute said that the decision was made as part of an effort to increase tourism in the Teotihuacan Valley.  Repairs have been made to the steps and a handrail has been put in.

There was no mention of reopening the Pyramid of the Sun.  Visitors will not be able to make the arduous climb and have the spectacular view of the entire archaeological site.  However, they will once again have the impressive panorama from the Pyramid of the Moon looking down the Avenue of the Dead.

Yet Another New Museum

Just a few blocks from the former convent of Sor Juana, I stumbled upon yet another one of Mexico City's many museums.  This one also opened recently, and it is dedicated to the Mexican Red Cross.  It is only the second Red Cross museum in the world, the other one being in Switzerland, where the organization was founded.

The Red Cross was founded by Henry Dunant, a native of Geneva, Switzerland.  In 1859 he witnessed the horrors of war at the Battle of Solferino during the War for Italian Independence.  Afterwards, he proposed the creation of a neutral organization to attend to the wounded in war.  In 1863, along with several associates, he founded the International Committee of the Red Cross.  In 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize.

The flags of the organization are on display.  The Red Cross flag that we are familiar with is an inversion of the colors of the flag of Switzerland.  I knew that the Red Crescent flag is used in Islamic countries.  The third flag. however, was a mystery to me.

I asked one of the museum volunteers, and he explained that it is used for those who do not want the religious connotations of the cross or the crescent.  The only nation to use that flag is Israel.

The Mexican Red Cross was officially created in 1910 due to the efforts of Luz González Cosío.

The exhibits highlight the role of the Red Cross in national emergencies such as the catastrophic earthquake of 1985.

The uniforms of Mexican Red Cross workers are displayed.

The Red Cross paratrooper squad does aerial rescues in terrains that are difficult to access.

The increased popularity of mountain climbing as a sport led to the creation of a "high mountain" rescue squad.

The museum is small and is certainly not on any "must-see" list of attractions.  However, I learned a few things, so my visit was worthwhile.  Mexico City is said to be second only to London in the number of museums.  If new museums such as this continue to open, I wonder if someday the city will be number one.

A New Museum

Most people in the United States have never heard of Sor Juan Inés de la Cruz, but people in the Spanish-speaking world, even those who have not read any of her works, know her name.  She is considered the greatest Spanish-language poet, philosopher and scholar of the 17th century.  She is one of the  most important female figures in world literature, and, in some respects, an early feminist.

Sor Juana was born Juana Inés Asbaje in 1651 on an hacienda near Mexico City.  She was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Spaniard.  Juana was a child prodigy who could read and write by the age of three.  She learned Latin, Greek and even the Aztec language of Nahuatl.  By age eight she was writing poetry.  Girls did not have access to a formal education, so she learned by secretly reading books from her grandfather's extensive library.  Because of her family connections she gained a position as a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Viceroy.  She received several proposals of marriage, but she turned them all down.

In 1669 she entered a Jeronymite nunnery in Mexico City.  There she devoted herself to her studies.  She amassed a library of  around 4000 volumes as well as a collection of musical instruments and scientific equipment.  She wrote more than 100 works, only a few of which have survived.  Her writings included passionate love poems, as well as works defending the right of women to formal education and criticizing the misogyny and hypocrisy of men. Her most famous poem, whose opening lines most well-educated Mexicans can recite, begins...

"Hombres necios que acusáis

a la mujer sin razón..."

"You stubborn men who accuse

women without reason..."

Her writings provoked controversy within the church hierarchy, and in 1694, perhaps in order to avoid official censure, she gave up writing and sold her collection of books.  The following year she died after attending to her sister nuns during an outbreak of the plague.

The former convent of San Jerónimo still stands on the southern edge of the "Centro Histórico¨.  The area around the church and convent has been cleaned up a bit.  There used to be a number of homeless people laying around in the plaza in front of the church, and the area smelled of urine.  However, there is still a lot of graffiti on the buildings on the opposite side of the plaza.

Since 1979, the former convent has been occupied by a university, "Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana", a private school which is best known for its courses in gastronomy.  Admission into the building was rather restricted, and no photography was allowed.  Recently, however, one of the rooms inside has been opened to the public as a small museum dedicated to the brilliant woman who lived, studied, and wrote here for more than twenty years.

You enter through a rather hard to find entrance of the other side of the building.  You pass through an attractive garden courtyard called the Patio of the Novices.

There is a bust of Sor Juana in the courtyard.

The museum is located in the hall called the "sotocoro", the room beneath the church choir.

A replica of a famous portrait of Sor Juana, done posthumously around 1750 by Miguel Cabrera, one of the most important painters of colonial Mexico, hangs on the wall.  (The original is in the National History Museum in Chapultepec Castle.)

This is a replica of Sor Juana's habit.  The large medallion she wore is known as a nun's shield.  It was worn on formal occasions, and was an indication of her high rank in the convent.  It was made of tortoise shell and painted with a religious scene.

In Mexico you see Sor Juana's visage every time you take a 100 peso bill from your wallet.

The "sotocoro" was used as the burial place of the nuns.  Although the exact location is not indicated, this plaque commemorates Sor Juana's burial in this hall on April 17, 1695.

 
Although the museum is very small, I am glad that the university has opened a small portion of the former nunnery to the public as a tribute to this remarkable woman.